Letters to the editor, Dec. 17

I know Mayor Dennis Tyler has been getting some bad press lately. It may be deserved, it may not. What I do know is he came through in a pinch for me and my family.

I found my water heater leaking recently. I called all the assistance and charity organizations in Muncie, all the Habitat Restore’s in a three-county area. No one could help.

As a Hail Mary, I contacted the mayor on Facebook just to see if he knew where I could get some assistance. I have been unemployed for a while, and just landed a new position. I don’t have $500 for a water heater and I have my disabled mom living here with me.

Mayor Tyler reached out to a contact of his, his contact met me at Menard’s and purchased everything I needed to swap out the water heater (heater and install kit) for me and told me to pay him back when I could. No matter what’s going on politically, the man has a heart of gold. I will forever be grateful.

Chris Anderson

Muncie

Baule’s contract should not be renewed

Muncie Superintendent Steven Baule’s contract needs to end June 30. MCS and Muncie need to heal, and that cannot begin, nor will it begin, until Dr. Baule is gone.

To be an effective leader one must be able to make the difficult decisions and still have people respect your ability to make them. When you are the “new kid on the block,” it is important to study and witness how things are being done; after having done that, you then should have a better idea of a change that might be made to improve a situation.

There are so many questions that need to be answered, among them, why have strong administrators been forced to retire or leave?

For the board president to say, “Who in their right mind would want to take this job at this point in time? How can we look at someone and say, ‘Come to Muncie. It’s a great place to move to and raise your family?’ ” – Wow! That quote is a wonderful selling point for all of the good things going on in the schools and the community – not! Guess what? Someone would be more than willing to accept this challenge. This is such a sellout statement to be made by the president of the board that has a negative effect not only on the schools but on the entire community. --very sad.

MCS is in a mess. Finances can and will be dealt with, over a short period of time; however, the “emotional” damage to the corporation will take years to repair. That will not begin until Dr. Baule is gone as the superintendent.

Kay Rankin

Muncie

Keeping a Christmas tradition

I want to thank both Muncie and Ball State for coming together so that the city could have the annual Christmas Sing. The president of the university seems to be one who wants the city and university to be like "one.” The Christmas Sing was done well, parking was excellent, and the program was very well done. We did miss the teacher's choir, that was always a treat.

Again, thank you to Ball State and Muncie, for keeping the tradition alive.

Bruce Beekman

Muncie

Alabama shows the way

Alabama has just provided a great learning experience: That the voice of Americans may still be heard no matter how much money vested interests throw into an election.

Roy Moore was defeated by Doug Jones in spite of the millions of dollars in support of him, and the president’s endorsement, because the citizens could not tolerate his actions. It was the people exercising their right to vote that made the decision for Alabama.

We as Americans face a time where we can just continue on and let the wealthy take control of our government and our lives, or we can stand together and decide our own futures. We have a president who has multiple sexual harassment charges against him and who averages 5.5 lies per day. We have a Congress who sells us a tax cut program on the promise it will be good for us. And yet we simply nod and hope they are telling us the truth in spite of evidence to the contrary. Why?

Because we have allowed them to divide and conqueror us. We have forgotten that we are all Americans and we all have more in common than we have differences. What happened to the America of my father that worried more about others than themselves? What happened to the America who protected the world other than their self-interests?

We call ourselves a Christian nation, but we have forgotten the basic job of Christ to care for others. We worry about immigrants because they may not be white. We worry about our stuff instead our fellow man. Jesus wept.

We know what is right, yet we allow a few loudmouths to speak for us. We watch news that agrees with what we believe, not that challenges us to think.

If we want our government to reflect our values than we must let our government know what our values are. We will never agree on what those values are. But Through discussion, we can come to a consensus on what may be best.

Alabama showed us the way. Get involved. Quit sitting around being too busy to care. Let your voice be heard and maybe you can make a difference.

Bruce R. Gaylor

New Castle

IDEM should conduct public hearing

Between 1989 and 2015, Exide Technologies released more than 227,275 pounds of toxic pollutants, including dangerous lead, sulfuric acid and arsenic, into the air and water in Muncie.

The effects and dangers of lead and arsenic are very real, especially considering that thousands of children and families live within a mile and half radius of the plant that continues to emit these toxic chemicals.

So, I was frustrated to hear that the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) is refusing to hold a simple public meeting on Exide’s application to renew its general operating permit for another five years. This is troubling as Exide has been fined numerous times to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars for exceeding toxic emissions levels and for bad practices at their Muncie plant.

The good news is that the Federal EPA must still review Exide’s permit before IDEM can give their rubber stamp of approval. So, we are calling on the EPA to demand that IDEM do the right thing and grant a public meeting so that residents can learn more about this important public health and safety issue in our community.

Donna Johnston

Muncie

An answer for LaMar column

Conservative Republican Nate LaMar asked the question: “Should U.S. move its embassy to Jerusalem?” He got his answer on the left side of the page, adjacent to his piece. Julia Corbett-Hemeyer’s headline said it all: “No means no, no matter what.”

Question: Why did LaMar feel it necessary to blame Henry Kissinger for his cop out? That is, my “realistic side of me errs on the side of caution.” Why is caution an error, pray tell? I ask the question because he informed readers he is an “evangelical Christian.” So? Why give a tribal answer?

The cleric’s headline about something different was correct for thinking people, evangelical or non-evangelical, even Reformed like me. In fact, she is one of a few who makes sense to me.

Regardless, I give LaMar credit, as a businessman, for having common sense, something President Trump doesn’t have. But LaMar, like me, has been all over the world, and his world-view reflects such.

B.J. Paschal

Muncie

Alabama election outcome

Praise be and Hallelujah! to the black women of Alabama. They saved our republic from Bob Moore.

So, all candidates for office take note. This includes men and women who do not believe that wealth and God determine which of us have rights to an education, to health care, to opportunity: who believe deeply that we embrace all peoples of this nation with dignity and respect.

Flo M. Lapin

Muncie

Selling school properties raises questions

With regard to the sale of the three schools sold for salvage value, how was this decision arrived at? Who voted for this action? How was the salvage firm selected?

Where can the minutes from this meeting be found? What is the plan going forward to develop Mitchell and Storer properties. Thanks to The Star Press for reporting the sale but there are still a lot of unanswered questions on why and how these properties were sold.

Greg Lusch

Muncie

Wild horses, burros at risk

National monuments and taxes aren’t the only issues being debated by Congress this month. America’s historic wild horses and burros may be on the chopping block as well.

The Interior Department, under Secretary Ryan Zinke, wants to reduce wild populations to extinction level by killing up to 90,000 of these cherished animals. It can’t happen without Congress’ support.

Will Congress listen to the voice of the people and continue to protect these animals? Or will it bend to the cattleman’s lobby, which views wild horses as competition for taxpayer-subsidized grazing on public lands and is pushing for roundup and slaughter?

We’ll know in a few weeks. Your voice could make a difference. Call 202-224-3121.

Slaughter will not solve the problem for the Bureau of Land Management because it requires continued roundups and it puts the federal government in the horse slaughter business, not where we want to be when 80 percent of Americans oppose that cruel practice.